1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a film scanner. More specifically, the invention relates to a film scanner wherein a carrier holding the film is loaded into a device body, and image data recorded in the film held by the carrier loaded into the device body are read out by being photoelectrically converted.
2. Related Art of the Invention
In recent years, film scanners have been generally used according to which a silver salt film (negative film or positive film) that is developed is imaged by using solid imaging device such as CCD, and is output as digital data or TV signals.
Use of the film scanner of this type makes it possible to take image data recorded on the silver salt film into a computer as digital data, and to display them as TV signals on a household TV receiver.
In such a film scanner of a small size, a sleeve (hereinafter referred to as "piece film") cut into short strips every after several frames of a size of 35 mm (size J135) and a film (hereinafter referred to as "mount film") that is slidemounted for each frame, are held on a film-holding member called carrier, and are loaded.
In a film scanner of a large size, plural kinds of carriers are exchanged making it possible to read even films of a brownie size and large formats.
In the film scanner, it is preferable to change the reading characteristics and image output characteristics depending upon the kind of the film that is to be read. However, the conventional film scanners have not been equipped with means for recognizing the kind of the film or of the carrier. Therefore, it is not allowed to automatically change the characteristics; i.e., the characteristics must be changed by manual operation or by an instruction from an external computer.
In recent years, furthermore, there has been proposed a system according to which a film that is developed is preserved by a user in a state of being contained in a cartridge. The film (hereinafter referred to as "long wound film IX-240") used for this system is different from the traditional film of the size J135 in regard to vertical-to-lateral ratio and the whole size.
Besides, a film scanner for reading the image data of the "long wound film IX-240" is going to be proposed. According to the prior art, however, the cartridge is directly loaded into the film scanner arousing a problem in that it is not allowed to read the piece film and the mount film using the same scanner.